ITV Denies That Massive Job Cuts Planned

The broadcaster has flatly rejected press reports that it’s planning to halve the 1,400 staff at its London South Bank HQ over the next few years. Or that more jobs will go among the 2,600 ITV staff members elsewhere in Britain and Europe. Announcing CEO Adam Crozier’s appointment in January, chairman Archie Norman said ITV’s priority was change “not cost reduction”. “That scale of job losses is certainly not on the agenda,” the broadcaster tells me. Talk that ITV was planning swingeing job losses surprised the City. Paul Richards, media analyst at Numis, tells me he doesn’t think there’s a pressing financial reason for heavy job losses right now. ITV’s debt load has come down as it emerges out of recession and the ad market picks up. “ITV is in a much stronger financial position than it was,” says Richards. “If there is a significant headcount reduction then it would be because Crozier and Norman think they can do the same job with fewer people.”